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Bridesmaids Director Shoots Down Possibility Of A Sequel

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig is making it pretty clear that there won't be a sequel to the 2011 comedy blockbuster. The film starred Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig as a pair of lifelong friends whose limits are tested when the bride-to-be (Rudolph) and her maid of honor (Wiig) have a falling out, after a new friend of the bride (Rose Byrne) comes between them. Bridesmaids was one of 2011's biggest hits, earning $288 million at the global box office on a $32.5 million budget, a stellar 90 percent "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay (Wiig and Annie Mumolo) and Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy).

Bridesmaids also sent TV veteran Feig's film career rocketing into the stratosphere, leading to such follow-up hits as The Heat and Spy, and of course, the divisive remake of Ghostbusters, which starred Wiig and McCarthy. This week, Feig is back in the director's chair, but this time helming the mystery thriller A Simple Favor. At that film's premiere Monday night, the filmmaker appeared to dash the hopes of any Bridesmaids fans hoping for a sequel.

According to Variety, Feig shot down the idea of making another Bridesmaids film, simply because it's an idea that played out once already. He says, “I don’t know if there will be one honestly. That movie worked so well because it was about a woman having a crisis in her life and fixing it. So you don’t want her to have another crisis.”

While at one point Universal Pictures was looking for ways to make a second Bridesmaids without Wiig, there's really no arguing Feig's logic, since to replicate the story line and reassemble the cast just hoping for another hit would seem like a pure money-grab. The great thing about Bridesmaids was that it was a sleeper hit that came out of nowhere, introducing then-Mike and Molly star Melissa McCarthy to feature film audiences, and opening up a whole new world of opportunities for several of its main payers. Now, given that Feig, Wiig and McCarthy are all A-listers, the expectation level for a sequel would be through the roof, and the success of the first film would not only be difficult to replicate, it would likely be doomed by comparisons to the 2011 original.

That's not to say that a Bridesmaids sequel wouldn't be funny - after all, Feig showed in his follow-up films that he's a talented director, and Wiig, McCarthy, Rudolph and Byrne tend to consistently deliver. That said, The Goldbergs star Wendi McLendon-Covey and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Ellie Kemper have found deep roots on the small screen, so it would be tough for the two - along with Wiig, McCarthy and Rudolph - to find time in their busy schedules to try to recapture lightning in a bottle, much less Feig himself. In the interest of preserving the first film's legacy, it's probably best that Bridesmaids leaves the idea of a sequel at the altar.